Saturday, May 06, 2006

A New Home For The Memorial?

The New York papers are all reporting today that New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing that the museum and visitors center that will be built at the World Trade Center site be put in the lobby of the Freedom Tower, the 1776-foot building that will be built on the site and owned by the Port Authority.

Bloomberg is attempting to get the rebuilding at Ground Zero jump-started, and is also attempting to get the costs of building the memorial down. On Thursday, he, along with Governors George Pataki and Jon Corzine, announced a construction cap of $500 million to build both the memorial and museum at the site.

The 9/11 family groups are certainly not going to go with the idea of putting the memorial and museum inside of The Freedom Tower. We were all promised a "world class" memorial, but it seems like the City and Port Authority are doing all they can to cut costs. Money of course, is a big consideration, and so far the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has raised just $130 million of the targeted $500 million.

The struggle to properly remember those loved ones and heroes of September 11, 2001 goes on. It is certainly time to get moving with more speed at the site. But it's going to take the wisdom of Solomon to solve this problem.

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